Torres del Paine - Part 1

A light breeze, the freshness of the sea, a slight chill in air and the pale sunlight of an early patagonian summer. Standing with my back to Punta Arenas airport, three flights and thirty odd hours after taking off from Heathrow, I was bleary eyed, exhausted and exhilarated. 

This was the furthest south I had ever been (much further, and I would need to join the British Antarctic Survey). My first time in Patagonia, in Chile, in South America. 

No time to get all grandiose about adventuring at the far side of the world (or, apparently, to take any photos that day). We had twelve guys, plus bags, to squeeze into two taxis. Luckily, the drivers were world champion Tetris players.

Soon, having dropped our bags at the airbnb, we were on our way into town for pizza and a light spritzing of tear gas (we arrived at the tail end of some protests). 

The group two days later, at the entrance to the park.
From left to right: Chris, Ash, Andy (rear) myself (front), 'G', Rhys, 'Kirky', 'Poth' (rear), 'Tiks' (front), Trevor (rear), Aaron (front) and Mark

Before going any further, I want to explain what this will, and will not, be. 

To start with the will nots: 

It will not be a definitive guide on how to hike the ‘O’ Circuit of the Torres del Paine (or the ‘W’, or the ‘Q’). Firstly, because that’s already been rather well covered in ‘The Complete Guide to Hiking In Torres del Paine, Chile’ on the Stingy Nomads blog. Secondly, whilst Mark and myself were the leaders out on the hills, my tent mate Chris actually put the trip together. I don't even want to know how long it took to get flights, hostels, buses, campsites, hiking visas, and god knows what else booked for us all.

I'll also try to avoid a boring "and then we did this and then we went here" kind of thing. I'll follow the story of our trip, but more as a framework in which to talk about the things that I find interesting. The history, the wildlife, the weather, all the things which make that wild place so special. 

I’m exceptionally disorganised (which explains why there are no photos from that first day), so there will be a mixture of hyperlinks, text-boxes and general references. I’ll try to stick them all in a rough bibliography at the end of each post, and I encourage you to look them up (they’re generally written by much more experienced writers/adventurers than I).

This was originally to be a single post, but I got a tad carried away. A friend suggested that, rather than scaring people off with a wall of text, I turn it into a bi-weekly serial. 

 

The What, When and Where.

This is a completely unrelated photo of a man in the street of Puerto Natales. I just thought it looked artsy.

We flew London to Punta Arenas, where we overnighted, then took a bus to Puerta Natales. We took a full day in Puerto Natales to recover from the travelling and to stock up on supplies (food can be bought at the refugios in the park, but it is cheaper at the supermarket in Natales). After our prep day, we took a morning bus to the park, and spent our first night under canvas in campsite Central.

We spent eight days on the trail (seven walking and one rest day). On the ninth day, we got a mid afternoon bus back to Natales, spent the night there, then took another bus back to Arenas where we had a full day before flying home. 

Going in early December, the start of the summer in the Southern Hemisphere, offered some of the best chances of good weather. 

There are two main routes through the park. The ‘W’, which works its way round the south of the park, and ‘O’, which involves walking the ‘W’ plus looping round the north end of the park, thus doing a full circuit of the Paine massif. There is also the ‘Q’ route, which is essentially the ‘O’ with an extra little tail section heading south west from Paine Grande, though this is not one of the commonly talked about routes. 

For our trip we would be walking the ‘O’ route, approximately 135km. 

Here's a map I borrow from the Stingy Nomads website (again, well worth a look) showing the various routes around the park. One slight irritation, and this is true of all the maps of the park, including the official ones given out at the park entrance, is that they give walking time between camps rather than distances. 

So, there we were. Bellies full of pizza, eyes slightly stinging, jet lagged and excited, at the southern tip of the world.

Links etc.

Just one this time.

The Stingy Nomads' guide to trekking the Torres del Paine: https://stingynomads.com/torres-del-paine-hiking-guide/

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The Fox and the Bad Wildlife Photographer - Torres del Paine Part 2.

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Gadding about on Goatfell